FOOTBALL HIGH

TUESDAY, APRIL 12 @ 7:00PM & 10:00PM

High school football has never had a higher profile, with nationally-televised games, corporate sponsorships and minute-by-minute coverage on sports websites.  In northwest Arkansas, FRONTLINE examines one ambitious high school team working its way towards national renown.

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GREAT FAMINE

SATURDAY, APRIL 2 @ 6:00PM

The little-known story of the American effort to relieve starvation in the new Soviet Russia in 1921, The Great Famine is a documentary about the worst natural disaster in Europe since the Black Plague in the Middle Ages. Five million Soviet citizens died. Half a world away, Americans responded with a massive two-year relief campaign, championed by Herbert Hoover, director of the American Relief Administration.

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UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS

EPISODE 3

FRIDAY, APRIL 29 @ 7:30PM & 12:30AM

A chance encounter with greatness goes to Mrs. Thackeray’s head, and in turn annoys Rose, who, fed up with her pretensions, unleashes an insult so great that it sparks a feud. Yet despite the embattled cook and housekeeper, the downstairs staff is united in their love and nurturing of the child Lotte, who appears to need more help than they can provide. With even more than her customary authority, Maud steps up to take charge, whisking the child away for treatment even as she guards a secret of her own.

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SPOON

SATURDAY, APRIL 9 @ 11:30PM

Hailed as “one of the most engaging American bands of the past decade” (The Phoenix) by critics and fans, Spoon returns to Austin City Limits for their third turn on the stage with a new album that “strikes a balance between its early angsty indie-rock and the soulful deconstructed pop of its 2007 release, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga” (Billboard).

Released earlier this year, Transference is an “experimental yet entirely accessible” (Q Magazine) CD that is “a compelling listen from a band that’s still at the mercy of its muse” (Boston Globe). “I think we were just feeling our way as we went along,” Britt Daniel told NPR. “And we definitely didn’t know how we wanted to make [Transference] when we started.”

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FRIDAY, APRIL 8 @ 6:30PM & 11:30PM

This week on Need to Know, we visit the island of Hispaniola, where the Dominican Republican is beginning to deport Haitians that had fled across the border following last year’s devastating earthquake. Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat follows up with a conversation about the American perception of Haiti and Haitian immigrants.

Also, a look at the Republican proposals for changes to Medicare and Medicaid, and essay from Jon Meacham and the return of Peter Sagal.

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WAR IS ALL HELL – 1865

THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE – 1865

THURSDAY, APRIL 7 @ 6:00PM & 11:00PM

The episode begins with William Tecumseh Sherman’s brilliant march to the sea, which brings the war to the heart of Georgia and the Carolinas and spells the end of the Confederacy. In March, following Lincoln’s second inauguration, first Petersburg and then Richmond finally fall to Grant’s army. Lee’s tattered Army of Northern Virginia flees westward towards a tiny crossroads town called Appomattox Court House. There the dramatic and deeply moving surrender of Lee to Grant takes place. The episode ends in Washington where John Wilkes Booth begins to dream of vengeance for the South.

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JAPAN’S KILLER QUAKE

SATURDAY, MARCH 21  @ 11:00PM

In its worst crisis since World War II, Japan faces disaster on an epic scale: a death toll likely in the tens of thousands, massive destruction of homes and businesses, shortages of water and power, and the specter of nuclear meltdown. With exclusive footage, NOVA captures the unfolding human drama and offers a clear-headed investigation of what triggered the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear crisis. Can science and technology ever prevent devastation in the face of overwhelmingly powerful forces of nature?

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THE 39 STEPS

FRIDAY, MARCH 27 @ 7:30PM & 11:30PM

Newly returned to England on the eve of World War I, Richard Hannay’s (Rupert Penry-Jones, Persuasion) listless London life is about to spiral out of control. When a neighbor bursts in with a top-secret notebook full of cryptic codes and a frantic story of an impending assassination, unlikely patriot Hannay is soon on the run to save himself and his country.

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